The rationale for holding a Housing Justice Speak-Out in New Paltz’s Peace Park on the closest Saturday to May Day was sound enough. “Why May Day? May Day has become the day for people to come together and demand a more just and equitable society for all,” the announcement for the event explained. Plus, “Mayday signals a life-threatening emergency.” And for many in Ulster County these days, rapidly rising rents and flat or decreasing wages do add up to such an existential threat.
As it turned out, the timing for the Speak-Out probably could have been better. It got underway at noon on May 4, less than 12 hours after 133 students occupying the Parker Quad on the SUNY New Paltz campus in protest of the mass killings of Palestinians in Gaza had been bodily dragged away and arrested by about 150 State Police and other law enforcement personnel armed with clubs, riot shields and dogs. The drama that had just unfolded on campus was top-of-mind for many of the progressive groups who turned out in support of the May Day event, and most speakers ended up turning the topic of conversation to “freedom for Palestine.” Several noted that much could be done to improve the lot of the homeless and hungry in America with the amount of US aid currently being given to the Israeli government for military purposes.
It would take more than the distraction of competing political priorities for organizer and fiery orator Marisa McClinton, however. A habilitation specialist with the state Office of People with Developmental Disabilities and a Public Employees Federation union activist who also runs a not-for-profit community aid organization called Unity Delivered, McClinton had her own recent experience with homelessness despite being fully employed. “I just got an apartment a month ago. I was homeless all winter,” she told HV1 in between speeches.
Cascading catastrophes in McClinton’s life, along with the financial demands of putting her elder child through college, left her unable to make her monthly rent by late last year. The vehicle that served as the literal delivery system for Unity Delivered, in which McClinton personally brought meals, clothing and other necessities to people in crisis, had been totaled by a reckless driver in December 2022, as she was busy preparing 1,000 Christmas dinners for free food fridges throughout the county. She was injured in the accident, missing time at work, and a bungled police report delayed insurance reimbursements for months. Yet she persevered, continuing to organize community events – pop-up food pantries, an MLK Day film screening and panel discussion, a survey of people at risk for homelessness, a live concert for peace – during her recuperation period, and even running a campaign for the Plattekill Town Board in 2023. Two years earlier, she had unsuccessfully challenged Republican incumbent Kevin Roberts for the Ulster County Legislature District 12 seat in Plattekill.
McClinton was eventually able to acquire another car, which was very fortunate, since that became her literal home over the winter of 2023-24. “I slept in my car for four months. I ate out of a dumpster behind Hannaford,” she related to the crowd at the May Day event. She said that the Department of Social Services was of little help, offering only housing in a hotel in Woodstock, while her workplace was located in Middletown and her daughter was attending school in the Wallkill District. During that period, McClinton said, her vehicle was repeatedly vandalized by a neighbor with mental health issues, who continued to stalk her and her younger daughter even after they finally found a permanent place to live.
Hers is a wild and woolly tale, including moments of contemplating suicide, but by no means atypical of Hudson Valley residents who live a paycheck or two away from poverty, she noted as she addressed attendees at the Housing Justice gathering. Though she is ever-ready to take up a cause for the poor and disenfranchised, housing insecurity is clearly her passion, and she repeatedly referred to it as a “humanitarian crisis.”
McClinton called out well-intentioned political officeholders including Ulster County Executive Jen Metzger and State Senator Michelle Hinchey for not showing up for the event, and for prioritizing long-term approaches to the housing crisis when “We want short-term, right-now solutions.” One such strategy, McClinton suggested, would be to make the hundreds of currently vacant foreclosed homes in the county available for transitional housing for homeless people who now languish in motels for as long as two years before they can be placed.
Systemic barriers to reentry for the homeless was another recurring theme, including the paucity of public transit in the region. “If you have no vehicle, you can’t get to RUPCO to fill out an application,” she noted. Transportation challenges were the primary reason not many actual homeless people were able to attend and speak out about their personal experiences, according to the organizer.
One public official who did turn up to speak was Phil Erner, who served one term representing Kingston’s legislative District 6 from 2021 to 2023. He took personal responsibility for the absence of homeless citizens at the event. “When I was in the Ulster County Legislature the past year or two, I got to know a lot of people who were homeless. I failed to do enough to ensure that they could be here today,” Erner told the crowd. “Many have been forced out of the county entirely and have no way to get back… The housing sucks, the transportation sucks. But I feel encouraged by this gathering here. We’re small, but mighty.”
Having been through a crisis of her own, McClinton has amassed a wealth of information on resources for people experiencing housing insecurity, and the Speak-Out event featured table after table covered with printouts of useful documents: lists of food pantries and free mental health service providers, UCAT bus route maps and schedules, voter registration forms, statistics on housing prices, even a chart of traditional hobo signs. Another table was laden with free food and bottled water, brought by Unity Delivered.
Also on hand at the event were a variety of community activist organizations, including Justice for Monica Goods, representing the young girl who died in 2020 when her father’s car was rammed by a State Police vehicle; Celebrate 845, advocates for artists who subsist in the gig economy; the Hudson Valley Club of the Communist Party USA; and Cornerstone Family Healthcare, handing out free Narcan kits. The Housing Working Group of the Mid-Hudson Valley Chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America supplied information about current legislative initiatives in New York State, such as the Emergency Tenant Protection Act, the Good Cause Eviction Act and a proposal to create a statewide Social Housing Development Authority.
To learn more about the services provided by Unity Delivered, as well as ways to contribute, visit www.facebook.com/uniteddelivered. The organization’s next public event is shaping up for Academy Green Park in Kingston on Memorial Day weekend. And you can expect to hear much more from Marisa McClinton in the future. You just can’t keep a good woman down – not when she’s on fire for a cause.
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